TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to investigate the feasibility of establishing a Safe Passage Plan in collaboration with the Long Beach Police Department, other appropriate City departments, Long Beach Unified School District, and relevant local organizations, and report back to the City Council in 60 days.
DISCUSSION
After school on May 12, 2022, a student walking from Jordan High School to Colin Powell Elementary School was brutally attacked near the 6100 block of Long Beach Boulevard. The perpetrator has since been arrested for this act of violence. While this is an isolated incident, every student in Long Beach deserves a consistently safe path to and from their schools daily. Children are the most vulnerable members of our society, and it must be our communal duty to protect them.
Safe passage programs, or safe passages, post trusted volunteers or for-pay community members along student’s paths to and from schools to ensure each student is kept from harm and arrives safely. These programs help deter many of the dangers children face while walking before and after the school day, including abduction, bullying, harassment, and physical assault. The Safe Passage Program in South Los Angeles, which is administered by the nonprofit Community Build, Inc., has served over 30,000 students since its inception in 2019, working with 24 schools and patrolling 13 nearby parks as well. Their efforts led to an 8% decrease in violent crime in and around parks served by the program in 2019. Chicago’s Safe Passage Program has resulted in a 20% decline in criminal incidents around schools served, a 27% drop in bullying incidents among students, and a 7% increase in attendance in local high schools over a 2-year-period. Further, the community involvement spurred by these programs benefits residents too, as more engaged constituents are more likely to collaborate to resolve neighborhood issues.
Multiple Safe Passage programs, both community-based and City-operat...
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